Premier Cricket: Dandenong pulls off ‘miracle win’ over Geelong in semi-final

The Panthers are into the Victorian Premier Cricket grand final after a stunning stand from Jacques Augustin and Peter Cassidy.

Jacques Augustin and Peter Cassidy enjoy a celebratory sip after Dandenong defeated Geelong. Pic: Akshat Buch World of Photography.

Dandenong is into another Premier Cricket grand final.

You’ll hardly believe how it got there.

Panthers great Brendan McArdle is calling it a miracle.

“I was at Headingley when Ben Stokes did what he did and that was just amazing. This was even more incredible,’’ McArdle said this morning.

In a remarkable semi-final at Geelong on Saturday, the Panthers recovered from 6-82 to run down the Cats’ 6-219 and put the club in contention to pull off a Premier premiership double.

The Dandy women’s team defeated Box Hill in the grand final at the Junction Oval two weeks ago.

The winning runs against Geelong, a boundary from Jack Fowler, came off the third ball of the last over of the match.

Fowler had walked out to replace Peter Cassidy, who combined with Jacques Augustin to put on 137 for the seventh wicket.

Yes, little Jacques Augustin.

Most followers of Premier Cricket would know Augustin was left out of the First XI at the start of the season because of his batting.

His right to be in the top rank of Premier wicketkeepers has never been questioned.

But Augustin had hardly made a run for two seasons and the selectors overlooked him in favour of Casey South Melbourne recruit Aaron Fernando.

They recalled him only in Round 14 – and in two hits before Saturday he’d made a duck and 2.

Dandenong keeper Jacques Augustin.

But against the Cats he went out and batted his team into a grand final. Of course, he can bat – he has a Premier century to his name, and the irony is he had more opportunity to show his wares by batting in the top-order in the Second XI.

His 71 not out was his first half-century for the Panthers, whom he joined in 2016-17 from Fitzroy-Doncaster.

The right-hander faced only 56 balls and cracked 8 fours and 1 six, swiping a leg-side full toss over the fence in a 49th over that made certain of victory.

And what about Cassidy, “Pistol Pete’’ the medium pacer who fancies himself with the bat?

He scored 56 off 67 deliveries, with 3 fours and 1 six. It was just his second half-century in Premier Cricket.

The stunning stand came after Dandy had lost 4-3, sinking from 2-79 to 6-82.

The Cats struck their blows after removing No 4 Ed Newman (16), holing out down the ground.

One wicket brought four for the host club, with Comrey Edgeworth (1), opener Brett Forsyth (38) and James Nanopoulos (0) quickly following Newman back to the pavilion.

So Augustin and Cassidy began their stand with Dandenong needing 138. The odds of them achieving it? Well, it was probably write-your-ticket stuff.

But they chipped away, taking the score to 6-124 from 38 overs and bringing a few distant eyes following on mycricket or the live stream back to the scorecard.

Then it started to become achievable: 6-149 off 41, 6-173 off 44.

Then it became believable: 6-191 off 47, 6-201 off 48. Holy heck, as Augustin would say.

Cassidy, who’d brought up his 50 in the 48th over, whipped the first ball of the 49th to the leg-side boundary and ran a single off the second.

The third ball was a wide. Augustin slapped the next over cover for four and then pinched a single. Cassidy took one off the fifth ball and then Augustin lifted the final delivery for six, knotting the scores. They’d taken 18 off Brody Couch’s over. It was more or less all over.

Brendan McArdle.

Cassidy chipped the first ball of the 50th to mid-on; it was a pity he couldn’t be there at the end with his great mate Augustin.

It was left to Fowler to finish off the Cats. No sooner had the ball came off his bat than Augustin was punching the air in celebration.

Another irony: Fowler was meant to bat ahead of Augustin, but in the rush out of wickets he wasn’t ready to go out.

“It was a miracle, an absolute miracle,’’ McArdle said.

“At the start it was a matter of getting another 50 or 60 and saving some of the embarrassment and some red-faces.

“Geelong supporters were organising their bus to Melbourne for the grand final, and we thought justifiably. Ross (Hepburn) and I were thinking, oh well, fair enough.

“Lo and behold they got to within 50 and then 40 and then 30. I still thought something was going to go wrong. But they kept going … intelligent batting and great running between the wickets … it was an absolute fairytale.’’

Augustin said he and Cassidy were relaxed at the start of the partnership, even talking about what they might get up to after the match.

“At 6-82, we were a long way off,’’ he said.

“It actually felt like it went for about 10 seconds. It went pretty quick.’’

He said he and Cassidy paid little attention to the score until their partnership reached 50.

Then it grew to 100.

“We just tried to keep that gap close between the balls and the runs … we knew if we could take it deep we were a sort of chance,’’ he said.

“It was 50 off 40, 40 off 30, 30 off 20 and then there was that over (the 49th) where we took 19 or 20 off it. It was surreal in the end.’’

Dandenong finished seventh after the home-and-away series but defeated Melbourne in the quarter-finals and is now just a win away from claiming its fourth flag since 2006-07.

Warren Ayres coached that side and in his first year back at Shepley has overseen the club’s rise to another grand final.

The Panthers will meet Prahran for season honours after the True Blues saw off Fitzroy-Doncaster at Toorak Park.

Prahran last won a pennant in 1983-84 and emotions were high among club stalwarts in the changerooms after the match. Coach Julien Wiener, the former Test batsman, appeared to be close to tears as he sat and listened to assistant coach Justin Graham address the players.